sms

Year after year, study after study, teens are proving to be texting at an increasing rate. In a new survey by the Pew Internet Research Center, U.S. teenagers are talking on landlines and cell phone less, using more smartphones, and are averaging 60 texts a day--up from 50 in 2009.

"Teens are fervent communicators," senior research specialist at Pew Amanda Lenhart writes in the study. "Straddling childhood and adulthood, they communicate frequently with a variety of important people in their lives: friends and peers, parents, teachers, coaches, bosses, and a myriad of other adults and institutions.&… Read more

Facebook is being accused of snooping on its users' text messages, but the social network says the accusations are inaccurate and misleading.

The company is among a wide-ranging group of Web entities, including Flickr and YouTube, that are using smartphone apps to access text message data and other personal information, according to a Sunday Times report (behind a paywall). The newspaper said Facebook "admitted" to reading users' text messages during a test of its own messaging service. The report also says information such as user location, contacts list, and browser history are often accessed and sometimes transmitted to … Read more

It's no secret SMS is wildly popular, but according to a new report from research firm Ovum, carriers around the world lost quite a bit of revenue last year after mobile phone owners turned to other services to chat with friends.

The research firm revealed yesterday that carriers lost $13.9 billion in SMS revenue in 2011 because of consumers chatting with friends on social-messaging applications. Those applications range from everything from Facebook's mobile app, which features chatting, to instant-messaging apps. Apple's iMessage is also included in that list.

It was a similarly disappointing year for carriers … Read more

Monster and Dr. Dre spearheaded the trend of celebrity-endorsed headphones, starting with the eponymous Monster Beats by Dr. Dre and Lady Gaga's own signature earbuds. But an increasing number of artists are partnering with other manufacturers for their own collaborations.

Signeo announced the Soul by Ludacris headphone series at CES 2011, and 50 Cent stopped by the CNET stage this year to demo his own wireless cans, but does a celebrity shout-out mean that those devices sound better than the competition?

Check out the following list to get the real scoop on all these new headphones supported by famous musicians.… Read more

Nick Hughes, the CEO of Seconds, has the best VC pickup line I've ever heard: "Last year, 2 trillion SMS messages were sent in the U.S., and not one reached a local business."

That's a lot of cheddar.

He continues: "Texting is becoming the predominant mode of communication, but we cannot send or receive short messages with local merchants." Hence his business, Seconds, which opens up the SMS channel between merchants and consumers.

Running on the Twilio communications platform, Seconds gives merchants SMS numbers and a console that lets them manage communication with … Read more

Google has removed five additional apps from the Android Market that mobile-security firm Lookout alleges appear to be engaged in SMS fraud targeting Europeans.

The apps were removed after Lookout discovered them yesterday, a Lookout representative told CNET today. That brings the total number of apps removed that Lookout has dubbed "RuFraud" (Russian Fraud) to 27, the representative said.

The apps, which appear to be free versions of legitimate games or wallpaper, are designed to do nothing more than charge premium SMS toll rates on European phones, according to Lookout. The rates are buried within the terms of … Read more

Devices running Microsoft's Window Phone are susceptible to a denial-of-service attack that disables their messaging function, a tipster has told WinRumors.com.

A malicious SMS sent to a Windows Phone 7.5 device will force it to reboot and lock down the messaging hub (see video below). WinRumors said tests revealed that the flaw affected a variety of devices running different builds of the mobile operating system. A Facebook chat message and Windows Live Messenger message will also trigger the bug.

So far, the only solution to the messaging hub bug appears to be a hard reset and wipe … Read more

Lookout is warning Android users in Europe about a slew of apps that showed up on the Android Market in the last week that aren't what they appear to be.

Google has removed 22 apps and suspended the developer accounts, a Google spokesman confirmed to CNET today.

The apps were purporting to be free versions of legitimate games or wallpaper. Instead, they appeared designed to do nothing more than charge premium SMS toll rates on European phones, Lookout said today. The rates are buried several levels deep within the terms of service, and users may not realize that they … Read more

Twilio, the maker of a platform for developing cloud-based communications apps, said today it has closed a $17 million C round of funding.

All told, Twilio has now raised $31.5 million. Its new round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Union Square Ventures, both of which had participated in its B round. Union Square also invested in Twilio's A round.

Twilio's platform is a favorite of developers interested in building cloud-based VoIP, text messaging and phone functionality into their existing applications. In 2011, the company said, its customer base exploded, expanding by 400 percent. To date, … Read more